We were lucky to catch up with Kelly Denison recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kelly, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?

It seems schools/teachers/admin/people who make educational decisions have forgotten just how kids “work”. With diagnoses of behavioral issues on the rise, it seems we are more concerned with punishment over understanding. Speaking from an elementary age perspective, we (society) forgets to embrace difference when it comes to behavioral ability, often holding children to higher standards to which we hold ourselves to. I personally know of 3 friends/acquaintances that have had their kindergartner SUSPENDED. And this is all coming from one school, and these are just the ones I know about! Their “crime”? Lack of impulse control. The prefrontal cortex area of the brain is responsible for impulse control (or lack of it) doesn’t fully mature until around the age of 25. And we’re expecting 5 & 6 year olds to get it right every day. Young kids need to move, they learn by moving and playing, they do not have the ability to totally understand and control their emotions. Perpetual punishments does nothing to help these kids, in fact I would go as far as to say these kinds of “discipline” procedures are a major contributing factor to the mental health issues seen in todays society. So by meeting children where they’re at (not where you want them to be) and adjusting our expectations accordingly in elementary school it sets them up for a much brighter future.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

As a “maker” I actually make funny/relatable signs and decor. Which may come as a surprise seeing how passionate I am about education.

After moving from the UK to the US in 2017 I decided that having a hobby would preserve my sanity so making signs and decor was it!

Fast forward a few years and my son and I fell into the misunderstood world of ADHD. Most moms question their parenting skills on a regular basis, but having a child with ADHD and autism and discovering I too have it, would make me question my parenting skills almost hourly. The phone calls from school, the tears, tantrums, the judgmental Judy’s who love nothing more than to tell me how he just needs more spankings to fix his behavior. It was overwhelming and I was in a cyclical mode of fight/flight/freeze.

Learning more about ADHD made me realize that we are just wired a little differently and we’re are greatly misunderstood. Having a somewhat dry and sarcastic sense of humor I decided that I would make signs that made ME smile. Signs that would remind me that I’m not alone, I’m not a bad mom, and our life looks different to what society has deemed “standard” and it’s ok.

So along with shifting elementary education to suit children not test scores, my mission is to provide smiles to those overwhelmed moms who think they’re alone in their journey. To remind them that they ARE a good mom, they are never alone and the next time they hide in the bathroom for a cry in peace they might just see my handmade sign that says “Shit Happens” and maybe crack a smile for the first time that day. There’s nothing more uplifting than the power of relatability and humor.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

There’s a fine line between resilience and not knowing when to give up and move on. Being determined and somewhat stubborn giving up isn’t really on my radar as a business owner. But as a mom, giving up is not an option. The ONLY option in my eyes is resilience. We can’t give up on the hard days, even if sometimes secretly (or not so secretly) we want to run away and live under a rock. We can’t give up when we read another social media post about how your neighbors and their well behaved neurotypical kids had a wonderful weekend away and are now harvesting their carrots from the garden while baking gluten free brownies, and then looking at our snot faced kid chowing down on last nights pizza because mom forgot to plan a meal again. It took me until almost 40 years old to be ok with being different (aka weird). It took me until I learned more about my sons and my own ADHD diagnosis to understand why things are different. That’s resilience. Resilience to not play the comparison game. Resilience to be ok with being me, and not being liked by everyone. If I had have given up and accepted myself as a failing mom with a “badly” behaved kid because I sucked at being a parent then I wonder what kind of road would be ahead for my son and our family. All these people with the same quote “oh he’s fine” “there’s nothing wrong with him” “you just need to discipline more” could have made me give up on finding out the cause of these behaviors. Luckily for my son I don’t listen well and ignored each and everyone of them while I searched for answers until then I found them. And that is resilience.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

While researching the ins and outs of ADHD and how to be a semi functioning adult I’ve come across wonderful resources that have helped me in my pursuit as an ADHD advocate and helped to shape my entrepreneurial philosophy.

Simon Sinek – The Power Of Why is the most powerful Ted talk I’ve seen. A great all round speaker and motivational strategist Simon Sinek was the first person to make me take a step back and rethink how I spoke to my audience.

Wes Brown – it was listening to one of his many motivational speeches while walking my dog that tears started to run down my face. I was thinking about my my son and the shitshow of an experience we had at his former school and I was so angry and frustrated with how they treated him and if only there was more training and understanding of ADHD then this whole farce and emotional heartache wouldn’t have happened. That’s when the words of Wes Brown made me cry (in public 😱), I knew then that something that made me this emotional was going to be my legacy.

Mel Robbins – the speaker and podcaster is a tell it like it is kinda gal. Her podcast episode titled “How To Find Your Purpose: Stop Searching and Do This Instead” made me stop and think about WHO I was speaking to. My ideal client. My customer avatar. However you want to define it. It made me realize that it was ME. Me a few years ago. The guest on the podcast said that your purpose may come from your struggles. And together with Wes Brown it was written in big neon lights as to what I should do (even if I wasn’t ready to admit it).

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